The Challenge of Multicultural Management in Global Projects

Abstract

Reasons for the particular uncertainty of global projects are the foreign environment and people from diverse cultures with different ways of thinking and working procedures. Handling these differences presents a big challenge for any project manager. During implementation they mainly focus on the professional, regulatory and (infra-) structural framework and don’t pay enough attention to the hidden stumbling blocks, namely the management of different people and cultures. Useful researches such as Hofstede's cultural dimensions and the GLOBE leadership study give a good overview of the cultural differences at the workplace. The focus in this paper is on the personal use of cultural knowledge with the main topic: “Effective application of cultural knowledge increases personal productivity”. Success begins in the mind. The core of cultural management in business is to adopt an attitude that is conducive to the personal preparation for the challenge of managing cultural diversity. A survey of differences in country-specific work methods helps to find the appropriate tools to deal with members of different cultures in one project. Three nations, China (Asia), Germany (Europe) and USA (North America) were selected and compared as examples in regard to common work rhythm, discipline and mentality. The results and analysis will help project managers to discover the potential of transnational projects and to improve their individual leadership coordination and management skills in a multicultural project environment.